What financial help do you get when you have children?

welshmoneylover

Posh toilet rolls...:rotfl:

Come on now this is MSE, go to Home Bargains and get a bumper pack of 18 for £3.99 :j:j

And save the difference :T

System

Hi Erics Mum. I do have a really good grip of our monthly outgoings, sadly thats not the problem. I set us goals every month, I have a spreadsheet I update every few days to keep track of our outgoings and ingoings..I add up how much we spend on food and petrol each month and highlight it to hubby too, so he can see where we went wrong....always food! Neither of us are guilty of buying magazines (internet generation!) or buying confectionery's...but our guilt is 100% on take-away, however it never causes us any problems, but is an area we could save in. Even though we have only been married a year we are very much like an old married couple, we don't go out much, and if we do its just for dinner and a movie. Neither of us drink...god i'm painting a lovely picture of us!ha Hubby works from home too, so there isn't a lot of expenses that way. Again, when it comes to the household products, we are guilty of buying the "posh" stuff...I have tried to the cheaper stuff, some i've kept using, but not toilet roll...we couldn't be converted!ha

System

Spendless wrote: »

How old are you moaning myrtle? Cos the sensible thing to do would be to wait those 3 years till your loan is paid off, which may be fine if you are early 20s, but not so great if you are late 30s.

Hi, I'm not early 20's...I wish!! We are both early 30's....We both just really want kids, always have, since we were teenagers but have always been too sensible, and i'm so scared we leave it too late.

I'm going to play around with figures and see how much overpayments we can make til next summer, and see if we could even change to a lower interest rate loan, or lower term loan after that.

Brodiebobs

as others have said you are on good incomes, overpaying the loan will free up alot of money, you would be more comfortable with a 'cushion' of savings for while your on mat leave (what will you be paid for this, some companies now offer full pay for 6 months?) and you'll get child benefit and maybe tax credits.....

But as much as planning can go you will manage. We started trying for our 2nd child when DH was doing well at work, earning more than we had in our lives (BTW much less than you) , and had around 6k in savings. Fast forward to 10 months later, DH lost his job, company wouldnt pay redundancy, we survived on jobseekers and my statutory mat pay, and the savings were eaten up with paying the mortgage. Thankfully he found work within 6 months, and it taught us a valuble lesson on how little we could survive on.

minnie123

Maybe it would be more helpful if you posted a SOA showing your income and expenditure then it would be more clear if you can afford it.

Kalia

When you say you have £700-£800 after all bills does that include food and such like? If so then I guess only you and your husband can decide if you would rather have extra money for luxuries or have a child.
Have you researched childcare prices near you? They can vary a fair bit.
Remember that most of the childcare costs are not forever - they have entitlement to some nursery from 3 and then school so it is just a few years.
By the time you had a baby it would be next tax year so, regardless of whether you are earning, on your husband's salary you would only get child benefit of £20.30 a year (£1055 a year).

Sixer

Another vote for waiting three years, paying off the loan, then trying for a baby.

Also, since your husband earns twice what you do, I would look into part-time work from home (see the Up Your Income board) or part-time evening work (pub, supermarket, shop, etc) that you could do after the baby comes. Tax credits might well pay for childcare, but they do tend to create a pointless treadmill of working to pay childcare costs and little more - and they can also be taken away or reduced at any time via government whim.

jellyhead

nannytone wrote: »

if you were entitled to anything, on your husbands income alone, you would only get the family premium of child tax credits which is about £10 a week. plus child benefit of £20 a week.

My husband earns similar to yours (I don't currently work - I couldn't afford the childcare on my wage), and we get what nannytone says.

The family element of tax credit is around £10 per week and the child benefit is 20-ish for the first child.

The tax credits thresholds are changing drastically, so next year we will probably get no tax credit, so it will just be child benefit. I have 2 children so I get £134.80 every 4 weeks.

My brother and his wife are both working. They were just very poor for the childcare years, then when the child started school the childcare bill was dramatically reduced and they had spare money for holidays and birthday parties, debts, another child or whatever.

The mystery helping hand you mention is only for people on less than your husband earns.

sick2death

I admire your foreward thinking about budgeting for having your first child, and whilst I agree what other posters are saying about waiting a few years, I'm going to disagree.

Your not saving for your wedding, or for a deposit on a house, you want to have a family. You cant second guess what the future holds - case in fact look at what happened with your Mum. In 3 years time, you may be "debt free" - but in 4 years time (god forbid) your husband may become unemployed. You dont know what the future holds. Personally, I think emotional stability, which you obviously have, is far more important than the financial requirements of having a child.

I was fortunate to grow up in a loving family, with good morals and values. I had hand-me-down clothes, cheap or no family holidays, but my upbringing was second to none. Ofcourse, if my parents had waited a few years to pay off their mortgage or something, then maybe I could of gone to school in new shoes each term, or had the latest game console at Xmas etc.

I'm not saying people should jump in feet first into starting a family - there are thousands of couples who have children, and rely on the state to "foot the bill". But IMO, you dont fall into this catagory. You may have to cut back on a few things here and there, but its very doable.

Bottom line, its about love, not money.

Good luck

DaisyFlower

On your joint salary you should be able to clear that debt in a year and given childcare costs etc it would be very wise to do so before you have children.

That £15k thats left from the wedding loan would have paid the childcare for one child for probably three years!! If your priority was to spend on credit for a one day event then you can hardly complain that you now cant afford something.